North Dakota Senate: The race at a glance

When Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) announced he wasn't seeking a sixth term, the Democrats' hopes of hanging onto the seat, and maintaining control of the Senate, suffered a big blow. North Dakota Republicans picked as their candidate Rep. Rick Berg, a millionaire who had won a statewide race only two years ago. (North Dakota has only one congressional seat.) Democrats chose former North Dakota Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp. And surprisingly, in a race that apparently has as much to do with personality as policy, Heitkamp and Berg are running neck and neck. Here's what you should know:

KEY ISSUESThe race has been full of policy differences — Berg is in hot water for the House failing to pass a farm bill, Heitkamp says Berg wants to privatize Social Security and voucherize Medicare, and Berg has been hammering Heitkamp for supporting ObamaCare and President Obama. Outside groups have poured about $5.6 million into the race, which is "a lot of money for a state of only 683,932 people," says Eliza Gray at The New Republic. But while people in conservative North Dakota generally agree with Berg's party, they like Heitkamp better. "In short, the campaign is a contest between North Dakota Nice and the national strategy of the Republican Party," says Jonathan Weisman in The New York Times. Berg is the favorite to win, but "with shoe leather, calibrated attacks, and likability — an intangible that goes far in North Dakota" — Heitkamp could create "one of the biggest surprises of the 2012 contests."